West Virginia Spill Worse Than Previously Stated

When I said I wouldn’t take Freedom Industries’ word for it, I had good reason.

While the company originally claimed that between 2,000 and 5,000 gallons of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol leaked into the nearby river, the company now says it may have been 7,500 according to the Charleston Daily Mail.

Freedom officials also just told Dorsey it appears 7,500 gallons of the chemical, known as crude MCHM, seeped from a container.

Originally, company officials thought between 2,000 and 5,000 seeped through a hole in the tank, and then an unknown amount escaped through a secondary barrier into the river.

Company officials told Dorsey the new amount, he said Saturday afternoon at a press conference from the state Capitol. He isn’t sure if that number could change again.

Given that the tank the MCHM was contained in had been leaking for some time before it was discovered, and given that it holds 35,000 gallons, I doubt we’ve heard the final number.

On Saturday Governor Earl Ray Tomblin said that nearly 800 people have reported symptoms associated with the ingestion of MCHM. According to the Associated Press, at least 32 of them sought treatment at local hospitals and at least 4 have been hospitalized.

The cruel irony is that local hospitals where victims have sought treatment have been unable to use their water.

I’m still waiting for the story on how a solar or wind farm poisoned the water and sickened hundreds.

I am starting to become less sympathetic to what happens in red states and I don’t like being that way. It’s like watching a family member with addiction problems destroy their own lives and refuse your help.

I sit in my progressive Los Angeles, CA and have to watch liberals caught behind red lines suffer at the hands of these sick GOP governments. I feel bad, but I also feel this desire for conservatives to suffer the consequences of their poor voting decisions.

mdblanche

Sounds like somebody on the side of the family I see several times a year. He’s dragging the people who see him every day down with him. They must really love him to still put up with everything he’s put them through. But from a distance it looks like keeping him from hitting rock bottom hurts them more than it helps him.

mrbrink

I was looking at all the brilliant things L.A. has planned under a cut-the-crap version of progressive governance. This is the opposite of what is happening in red states where they’re maniacally stabbing the ground with giant machines and injecting poison and calling it an economy. Chris Christie is one of the best examples of republican governors destroying their states through brute ignorance, militant greed and willful neglect. Scott Walker, Rick Scott, Rick Perry… on and on. Same thing.

I’m afraid this is all going to get worse before it gets better. This is a wake-up call. This poisoning of the water supply is happening all around the country. While billions of gallons are being siphoned off from public water sources for chemical processing/refining of coal, mountaintop removal, hydraulic fracking– nuclear power plants– their scurvy little spider subsidiaries and their subsidiaries and so on are just setting up shop on rivers and large bodies of water and letting their shit just blow in the wind and into the ground.

Oil spills, chemical plant and refinery explosions? They’re willing to overthrow the government through any means necessary, whether it be through the courts or the ballot box, on the grounds that these industries are facing tyrannical job-killing regulations.

There is no future in any Republican party bedtime story, and no California dreamin’ allowed.

D_C_Wilson

“Scott Walker, Rick Scott, Rick Perry… on and on. Same thing”

Why is Tom Corbett not getting the same credit on the national stage as these other governors? He’s working just as hard to destroy Pennsylvania as these others are working to destroy their respective states. Hell, he even named a climate change denier to head the state Department of Environmental Protection! What more does he need to do to get the recognition he deserves?

desertflower1

It gets “better.” Now with Koch Bros. connection! Try and act surprised.

Yep, the Koch bros are definitely Satan’s little helpers. And to put a cherry on it….in the article you link to…Freedom Industries would have gone out of business had it not been for Federal aid. Hypocrisy is their middle name! They love the Federal Teat as much if not more than those mythical young bucks buying steaks and driving caddys.

D_C_Wilson

Hold that thought until we find out how much the taxpayers will be on hook to clean up this mess and how “Freedom” Industries will do their best to wriggle out of any settlement they initially agree to, just like BP has been trying to get out of paying its settlement to the residents of the Gulf Coast.

moelarryandjesus

As soon as I heard the stupid company name I assumed there was a Koch connection.

D_C_Wilson

Really. Who the hell names a gas company “Freedom”?

moelarryandjesus

Glibertarian assholes.

Follow and Like Us:

Support the Blog & Independent Media!

Click the PayPal button below to contribute to our daily efforts here:
Thanks so much helping to make all of this possible.